


I'll Fight For You

by bright_side_of_the_sun



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Pre-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25196326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bright_side_of_the_sun/pseuds/bright_side_of_the_sun
Summary: “I still can’t believe you beat me,” Annette muttered as she grabbed a biscuit. “Tell me your secrets!” Some of the other nearby students in the garden turned to stare as Annette none-too-quietly demanded an explanation from Sylvain, who had his hands up in mock surrender as Annette brandished the cookie in his face.Beta read by TheOtherBucket who has an awesome fic called "All That Slithers" that you should totally check out!
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Annette Fantine Dominic/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	I'll Fight For You

“I still can’t believe you beat me,” Annette muttered as she grabbed a biscuit. “Tell me your secrets!” Some of the other nearby students in the garden turned to stare as Annette none-too-quietly demanded an explanation from Sylvain, who had his hands up in mock surrender as Annette brandished the cookie in his face. 

He couldn’t help but laugh at how her eyes sparkled as she harrowed him from the edge of her seat, almost knocking over her sweet-apple blend tea. True to her request of him, he had tried his absolute best in their sparring match half an hour ago. Swords were neither of their strong suits, but although he was a slacker, he _was_ more familiar with close-range battling. 

“It helps that I have a foot of height on you,” he said, still chuckling. “And… you have a tendency to look in the direction you’re about to attack. I noticed you staring at my right side before you moved and knew you were going to lunge.” He had parried and smacked the flat of his blade against her hand, forcing her to drop her sword with a loud _clatter_. She had immediately recoiled, drawing her hand to her chest and staring at him with wide eyes as they both panted heavily from the exertion. 

“Oh my goddess Annette,” he breathed out through gulps of air. He had cursed himself. He should have known better than to go all out no matter what she said. She was a deadly warrior in her own right but that was when it came to magic and spells, not to physical weapons. “I’m so sor-”

“ _That was amazing, Sylvain!_ ” Annette screamed so suddenly that he had almost dropped his own sword in surprise. 

“It wasn’t bad,” the professor acknowledged with a smile, pretending she hadn’t seen Sylvain fumble and recover his training sword as she walked up to them. “Sylvain, good work. You have the basics down fine, the main thing you need to work on now is your stamina. You were barely able to complete the last hour of training, in battle you won’t have the luxury of taking a break.” He nodded in response, still huffing, and shuffled to the training rack to place the training sword back. 

The professor continued as he left. “Annette, your footwork when Sylvain parried was off, I want you to practice…”

Her following words fell away as Sylvain left the training grounds, exhausted. _Alright, where to next?_ The day was already halfway over, and he was thinking of finding a different type of sparring partner after he cleaned up a bit. But as his half-formed plans started to take shape, a small force barreled into his back, bowling through them cleanly. 

“Ow…” a voice grumbled.

Sylvain straightened and turned around, about to snap at whoever had slammed into him. But as he looked down to see Annette rubbing her forehead in pain, his anger melted away into amusement. 

“Ah, Sylvain!” she exclaimed as their eyes met, and her hand dropped away. “Good, I caught up with you! You have to tell me how you did that in our battle.” She was staring up at him with a determined gaze that was no less intense for her short-winded words. “Let’s go for tea right now! I could use a snack anyways after that training.”

“You know Annette,” he snickered while sweeping his hand through his hair. “If you wanted to go on a date with me, all you had to do was-”

“I’ll meet you in the courtyard in 30 minutes!” she yelled back at him, already running off towards her dorm room.

“-ask.” And Sylvain was left there, rooted in the doorway of the training grounds with one hand still brushed halfway through his locks. He immediately retracted it and cleared his throat, glancing around before shaking his head, sighing, and making the trek to his room.

Half an hour later he was indeed in the courtyard, having tea and biscuits with Annette.

“Huh, I can’t believe you noticed that while we were sparring. I’ll practice and practice and beat you next time for sure!” Her hands were pumping as she spoke, and despite the draining training exercises, he felt his own energy rising in response to her spirit.

Sylvain chuckled and was about to say something else when a peal of laughter rippled across the courtyard. 

“Seriously though, that girl is such a teacher’s pet. If I have to see those lame pigtails from the back of class one more time, I might switch houses.”

Sylvain froze and slowly turned towards the source of the voice. Three students were sitting together, a male student being the source of the words, a female student being the source of the laughter. The third, another female student, just looked uncomfortable. Sylvain quickly glanced back at Annette, praying that she hadn’t heard, but he saw that she was sitting back down in her seat, shoulders hunched. Her eyes had glassed over and her smile was frozen on her face. Anger rose within him, and he turned hotly back around in his seat towards the other students. Before he could take a step or say a word, the female student spoke.

“ _Him_ though. That’s Sylvain Gautier. My dad is trying to arrange a marriage between us, you know.” Sylvain’s heart dropped, his stomach churned, and he found that his body would no longer move. “I’ll be set for life, hell I could probably turn that idiotic bum into someone great, given _my_ talents.”

Another one, Sylvain thought. Just another one of those girls that just want to use him for his title. He hated it, he hated them, he hated her, he hated it all. 

“How _dare_ you.” 

Sylvain was startled out of his bitter ruminations by three venomous words hissed from across the table. He looked at Annette and was stunned to see her no longer sitting in her seat, but standing, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. All sadness in her countenance had been replaced by white-hot anger. 

“How _dare_ you,” she said again, her voice rising and interrupting the two students’ snorts of laughter, “say that about my friend.” They were staring at her now. In fact, the entire courtyard was staring at her. 

“How _dare_ you talk about Sylvain like- like he’s someone you can just walk all over and get rich off of.” Her eyes flashed, and despite her short stature, she seemed to tower over the others. They recoiled in their seats as she took a step towards them. “For your information, Sylvain is a _genius_ . He can definitely be a bum sometimes, but he’s amazing when he tries and he doesn’t need _anyone_ , let alone someone like _you_ to make him great. He’s _already_ great because he’s caring and he’s generous and he’s an amazing friend and an amazing person and don’t you _dare_ ever talk about Sylvain like that _ever again_.” By the end of her rant, her voice had raised to a roar, and the two students were open-mouthed and speechless, while their friend had the decency to look incredibly embarrassed for the three of them. 

Somehow the only thought that crossed Sylvain’s otherwise stupefied mind was _Was that part about being a bum really necessary?_

Annette whirled around to look at him. “Do you want to go Sylvain?”

It took him a second to realize that his own mouth was hanging on its hinges as well. He shut it with a _snap_ and responded with an incredibly articulate, “Uh. Yeah. Um, yeah let’s go.” He rushed to gather his things as Annette stalked out of the garden, glaring at the two other students so intensely that she almost walked into the rose bushes.

“Hey. Hey, Annette,” Sylvain spoke as he caught up with her after he grabbed his own bag and Annette’s, which she had left behind in her anger. For such a small person, she walked _really_ fast. “That was, um. That was really… They were...” She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, her arms crossed and chin held high in defiance, ready to challenge any admonishment he was about to voice. His sentence died off as he beheld the stony-faced girl in front of him: the one who had a perpetual smile on her face, the one who got along with everyone. The one who said he was great because she saw something good in him that wasn’t his damn crest. For all his normal eloquence, he couldn’t find the words to describe how his heart had thrilled with every word she had spoken, how his chest was filled with a new but fierce desire to be even half the person she saw in him.

“They obviously didn’t know anything they were talking about, because your pigtails are adorable!” He winked on the outside while he died on the inside, cursing himself for his automatic response. “But,” he rushed out before she could react, “... thanks.” And he smiled at her, a real smile, and the lines in her face softened. As she broke out into a quiet grin herself, his heart warmed.

“If any of them talk about you like that again, they’ll have me to deal with!” Annette accentuated her threat with an incredibly unimpressive flex of both arms before they both dissolved into laughter that for some reason neither of them could stop: and they continued laughing with their hands on their knees until they were struggling to breathe. 

“You’ll have to be able to beat me in a swordfight before you can fight my battles for me,” he teased lightly while wiping away some tears and holding his stomach.

His laughter died in his throat as he saw her straighten and her eyes widen.

“Wait no”. His heart dropped. “Annette that was a joke-”

“You’re right!” she exclaimed. 

Oh no. 

“Let’s go right now!”

Oh _no._

“We had a good break and the training grounds are still open,” she babbled, missing entirely how Sylvain’s face got paler and paler with every word. “We’ll practice again and this time I won’t let you beat me so easily!” 

“Annette please,” he begged weakly. “You’re killing me, I’ve done more training today that I did all of last week.” 

“Well, it wouldn’t be so difficult if you did this more often! Just like the Professor said. And don’t go easy on me, I’ll know.” 

Despite his groaning and complaining, Annette somehow dragged him back to the training grounds for a rematch. By the end of the day, he collapsed into his bed, not even bothering to clean himself up again. But despite the grueling hours of training he had, he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

* * *

The next day, the student who had insulted Annette’s pigtails was seen hobbling to the infirmary with a black eye. He wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened, but Annette later found an apology note pinned to her door, and from then on the student always seemed unusually frightened of the lazy, laid-back Sylvain Gautier.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm admittedly a diehard Felannie fan, but I wanted to explore Annette's relationship with other characters. I'm still sad that she and Sylvain didn't get an A support :( This is my first fic ever, so concrit is hugely welcome!


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